Nonexistent
by chibi amelia
Summary: Sora wakes one morning to find Sunao missing, but nobody else seems to remember him. Is Sora losing his mind? Did Sunao ever exist? Takes place after episode 12. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

Nonexistent.

Chapter One

Sora smacked at his alarm clock, but the entire thing just fell to the floor and bounced across the room.

And it was still ringing.

"Dammit...Fujimori...grab that?"

The alarm kept on ringing, which went as no surprise to Sora. With the difficulty he usually had waking Sunao in the mornings, the pink-haired boy most likely had just rolled over with the alarm screaming just inches away from him. Sora rolled out of bed and grabbed the clock, shutting the alarm off. As he turned to sit the clock back onto it's stand, he didn't hear any movement from Sunao.

"Get up Fujimori, or else you'll be late for class." Sora spoke as he took his blanket and straightened it. Still no sign of movement from the bed behind him. Usually his roomie wasn't this bad with waking up, Sunao had yet to wake up enough to curse at Sora to leave him alone. "Fujimori, get up or..."

Sora had turned, ready to yank the covers off of Sunao, or something similar. But there we no covers. There was no Sunao. There was just an empty bed, on an empty side of the dorm room.

"Fuji...mori?"

Where was he? Where in the world had Sunao gone? Sora stood, frozen in his spot, staring at the empty bed for several seconds. Empty.

Something in his chest dropped. Sora stumbled back to sit on his bed, still staring at the empty bed with wide eyes. Where was Sunao? Where was all of his belongings?

But the more logical side to him kicked in. Sunao had moved out of the room once before, he forced himself to remember. Back before Sora could remember anything and all of those bad things were happening. But that was such a long time ago, nearly an entire year. Had Sunao been angry at him? Sora couldn't remember doing anything annoying as of late.

Matsuri.

He would know. He seemed to know everything, so he would know something as simple as where Sunao had went.

Sora dressed quickly, trying not to look at the empty side of the room. It was too quiet, too lonely. He left the room without his books, because he certainly wasn't thinking of classes. As he ran towards Matsuri's room, nearly knocking down fellow classmates, he prayed that the blonde hadn't left for class yet. It was still a bit early to leave for classes, Sora himself usually didn't leave his room for another twenty minutes or so.

He hit the Matsuri's door with his fist, catching his breath from his run. Something felt wrong about this, something deep in his heart told him that this was wrong. The door opened, a half-dressed Matsuri standing in the doorway with a bit of a confused look. When he saw who it was though, the blonde grinned widely, even if his long hair wasn't even combed yet.

"Good morning!" Matsuri announced, stepping back so Sora could enter the room. "What brings you here so early, Sora-kun?"

Sora shook his head, still catching his breath. "You...where...Fuji...Fuji..."

"Fuji?" Matsuri repeated grabbing a comb to pull through his very long hair. Really, his hair was much, much too long. Of course, Sunao's was just as long. And although both of their hair was longer than most any female's that Sora had met, their long hair seemed to just be right. Long hair on a boy wouldn't usually work, but Sora couldn't imagine them any other way.

The blue haired boy nodded, sure that Matsuri would know.

"Mt. Fuji?" The blonde questioned.

Sora stared at his friend for a moment. He then attempted to smack the blonde across the head, but missed as Matsuri took a step back.

"What the hell--not Mt Fuji!" Sora snapped. "Fujimori! Where is he? All of his stuff is gone! Did he switch rooms on me again?"

Matsuri put a finger to his cheek in thought. He had finished getting ready and now would have been the normal time that he left for class, but Sora seemed to be spazzing out on him this morning. Usually Sora's temper didn't break until at least eleven am.

"Fujimori...Fujimori..." Matsuri spoke. He prided himself in knowing who each and every person in the student body was. He usually snapped a picture of any new arrivals to make sure he would remember who they were. He said it was his responsibility to know who all of the students were.

Many just called it stalking.

He usually liked to tease his childhood friend, but for the life of him, Matsuri really didn't know what Sora was talking about.

"Isn't there a Fujimori over at the elementary school?" The blonde questioned.

Sora shook his head, wanting to grab Matsuri by the shoulders and shake the life out of him.

"Sunao! Fujimori Sunao!" Sora said, almost desperately. "He wasn't in our room when I woke up this morning! Where did he go, Matsuri?"

Matsuri's face suddenly lit up in recognition. Sora nearly sighed in relief, sure that now his friend would tell him where Sunao had gone.

But the blonde just shook his head. "Sora-kun, you're new roomie's name is not 'Fujimori Sunao'. What's with you and names? Yesterday you thought his name was 'Osamu', or something like that. And he doesn't come until tomorrow, silly."

Sora stared at the blonde for a moment, wondering why they were not on the same page. As he opened his mouth to speak again, a picture on a nearby table caught his eye. Matsuri had pictures all over the place, he was obsessed with taking photos, after all, but it was this one that Sora noticed. He stepped past Matsuri and knelt down beside the table. Picking up the framed picture, his hands shook a little.

He had seen this picture many times, it had been sitting on Matsuri's table for months now. It had been taken on their first day back to classes after the entire incident at the lab. Sunao and himself had been sitting next to each other, eating lunch, when Matsuri had come up behind them, saying something that caused both to blush hot pink. Sticking his head between the two and reaching his arm around Sora, Matsuri had taken a picture of the three, a large and silly grin on his face.

The picture in Sora's hands, however, showed Matsuri's arm around a blushing Sora, a large and silly grin on the blonde's face. That was...it.

There was no Sunao.

"Sora-kun?" Matsuri questioned, poking the blue haired boy's cheek. "What are you doing? We're going to late to class if we don't leave soon."

He dropped the picture back onto the table and spun around to face the blonde, who just blinked back at him.

Matsuri was playing games, that was it.

Sora pushed past Matsuri, running back out the door. Each and every student he came past, he asked about Sunao.

Each and every student shook their head. They didn't know who that was, sorry, time for class!

Fujimori Sunao did not exist.


	2. Chapter 2

Nonexistent.  
Chapter Two  
>

Fujimori Sunao did not exist.

It was as simple as that, but that wasn't simple at all.

Sora was skipping his classes, but that was the least of his problems. Fujimori--his Sunao--was missing. Nobody seemed to be able to remember him at all, not Matsuri, not the adults.

He was currently, lying on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He had looked every where, had asked each and every person he came by. But nobody knew. Not a single person. Why?

It was nearly noon by now, but Sora had no intentions of moving. His eyes flickered across the room to the empty bed and his stomach sank even further than it had been.

Ever since six months prior when he had regained his memories and there was that whole incident at the old lab, Sora and Sunao hadn't made all too many gains in becoming closer. There were times when they would be sweet to each other and not end up arguing. There were times they would go out with each other, but neither one dared called it a 'date'. When walking down an empty hallway, one of the two would sometimes grab the other's hand, but almost always they moved away when someone else came near.

But there was a word Sora had for Sunao, although he had admitted it, even to himself.

And it was because of that word, or emotion, that Sora forced himself to sit up. He had to figure out what was going on. He had to know where Sunao was, he couldn't give up so soon.

"Okay, Fujimori was here was I went to bed last night." He said to himself glancing towards the empty bed once more.

They had not been arguing the night before. Sunao had mentioned something about wanting to see a movie that was coming out soon. Sora didn't exactly want to go see it, some sequel horror flick, but had promised to go when it came out.

"And then he wasn't here when I woke up."

How could Sunao had left, taking all of his stuff, without waking Sora in the process? That was the most puzzling thing of all. Or, perhaps, the second puzzling, the first being how no one else seemed to remember him.

Sora thought through some possibilities. Could he had been drugged before or while he was sleeping? That could maybe explain why he didn't wake up, no one can be perfectly quiet when moving their belongings. Maybe Sunao was kidnaped...and the entire student body had been drugged?

"It makes no sense at all!" Sora snapped punching his bed.

A pink elephant caught his eye.

That elephant that he slept with, that had been cut open months ago and patched up by Sunao...

...wasn't patched. It had never been torn. Ever.

Things were just getting weirder and weirder...

Matsuri came the next afternoon to check on Sora. And although the blonde was starting to worry about Sora's mental health, he sat and listened to Sora's complete story. About Sunao, the lab, their childhood.

"But that all happened months ago." Sora said as he nearly completed his story. "It's been ages since then, and now Fujimori's just disappeared. He was here last night! And now nobody seems to know where he went..."

Matsuri patted Sora on the head, like a small child. "Exams are coming up, you know. Don't worry, you certainly aren't the first person to go a little cuckoo with all of this pressure from exams. Maybe you've been studying a little too hard?"

Sora steamed. Matsuri didn't believe him. The blonde wasn't taking this seriously. Sunao was missing and nobody knew who he was! Before he could say anything more, the door suddenly opened without a knock.

"Fujimori!" Sora exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

But it wasn't the pink haired boy. It wasn't.

Why wasn't it Sunao?

Sora slowly sank back down onto the bed, a look of disappointment clearly written on his face.

The person who had opened the door was built was Sunao, thin and willowy, which was most of the reason why Sora had mistook him so easily at first. But this person, this young boy, had short and tamed, deep blue hair, nearly black. His eyes, a much lighter blue and nearly the same shade as Sora's glanced between Matsuri and Sora, then back down to a sheet of paper in his hand.

"Um...I may be in the wrong room..." But he noticed the empty bed and became seemed to get a bit more courage. "I'm looking for Hashiba Sora?"

Sora just stared at the boy, who was holding a luggage case in his free hand. He could see more luggage sitting outside of the door. Mitsuri, however, grinned brightly and stood.

"I was supposed to meet you and help carry your things!" Mitsuri noticed, glancing at his watch. "Sorry, I got caught up talking! My name is Honjo Mitsuri."

The boy nodded slightly. "I was waiting for you for a while...and then I was told to just find the room on my own."

"Sorry, sorry. This here is Sora, your roomie, who's just stressing a bit about exams!" Mitsuri decided to tell the complete stranger. "Sora-kun! This is finally your new roommate, Takashi Yuki!"

The new boy turned and bowed his head to Sora. "It's nice to meet you, Hashiba-san, I hope we can become great friends."

Sora just continued to stare. He didn't need a roommate, he already had one! But Mitsuri jabbed him in the ribs, so he nodded towards the new student. "Nice...to meet you...I think..."

Mitsuri whipped out a small camera from his back pocket and snapped a shot of the two new roommates. Yuki looked at the blonde with a questionable look, but Mitsuri was now half out of the door, stepping over the luggage.

"Now! As much as I'd love to watch this new friendship bloom, I am late for a student government meeting!" He waved as he shot down the hall, leaving the two alone in silence.

Yuki bit his lower lip as he dropped his luggage case onto the empty bed. Sunao's bed.

At that moment, Sora decided that all of this was a dream. It had to be. Nothing added up at all.

"Um...so..." Yuki spoke, trying to break the silence. "Have you been going to this school for a very long time?"

Sora didn't answer. He said laid back onto his bed wondering when the dream would be over.

Yuki blinked at the rudeness, but decided not to mention it. After all, the blonde student, Mitsuri had just said something about stress over exams. He continued to bring his things in, starting to set fresh sheets onto his bed, glancing over at Sora in curiosity.

This was a dream. There was no other explanation. So, Sora decided to just roleplay for a little while.

"Hey, I'm sorry." Sora said, sitting back up and then standing. One bag of luggage was still sitting beside the door and Sora grabbed it and brought it over to sit with the others. He looked down at the smaller boy, who looked back up at him in confusion over the sudden change of attitude. Yuki wasn't short for his age--now, Sunao was short, Sora thought--but Sora had always been tall compared to others his age and was a few inches taller than this new student. "You're...what was your name again?"

"Takashi Yuki."

Sora nodded. "Takashi-san, want me to help you move in?"

Yuki continued to stare at him because of the attitude change. He made a mental note to beware of his new roommate's mood swings.

He finally answered after a second's pause. "You don't have to...but I would like it if you would."

"Think I will, then after we're finished I suppose I could take you down to dinner, introduce you around."

Sora really was roleplaying. While in the back of his head something was still not at all right here, he was trying to convince himself that this really was a dream. And like all dreams, he would wake up sooner or later. But until then, he might as well play along. After all, he couldn't have his dream-self being rude or bringing on some dream-enemies who were likely to kill him in ways that only came about during dreams.

He helped unpack Yuki's school items and set them up nicely at the empty desk. Sunao's desk, but it was Yuki's desk in this dream. Pens, pencils, paper, books on history and foreign languages. He spoke nicely and started a decent conversation with the new student, who didn't seem to like talking about himself much.

"I used to go to a public school." Yuki said as he was unpacking his socks. "A student was murdered at the school and my mother thought it would be wiser to send me here."

"So late in the year?" Sora questioned, in his roleplay. "We've got exams in only a few weeks."

The boy tucked a stand of dark hair behind his ear. While his hair was very short compared to some standards, the straight locks fell just above his shoulders, combed down, and not anything as wild as Sora's hair.

"I...I think I can do well on my exams." He sounded a bit unsure of that, but he nodded all the same.

Sora wondered for a moment if he was going to do well on his own exams. Sunao had been helping him, just the other day, on English, which was really becoming his worst subject. Sunao had called him and idiot and had smacked him, though not all that hard, when he noticed Sora wasn't even paying much attention.

They went down to dinner not long after, both starving. Sora wondered how one got hungry in a dream and why exactly the 'pinch me, I'm dreaming!' thing didn't work. He introduced Yuki to his friends, who simply adored him. They pinched his cheeks because he still had a bit of a child-like look to him and didn't look at all his age.

Many people who looking at Sora oddly and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until Mitsuri joined them and explained did Sora know why.

"You've been running around looking for some imaginary friend." The blonde said over his dinner. "Who wouldn't talk? You seem to be back to your old self, though. See, I told you that it was just stress."

Yuki glanced up at Mitsuri, a question in his blue eyes, but he did not speak. He knew it wouldn't be polite to say anything about something like that, unless one of them asked him first.

"Fujimori is not an imaginary friend!" Sora said angerly, forgetting about his food. He did speak in a low tone, to not cause any more attention. He forgot for a moment that this was supposed to be a dream. "He's as real as you and me, but something weird is just going on!"

Yuki stopped eating and moved away so that he would stay out of the conversation. It wasn't his business and he certainly didn't want to be dragged into it. His new roommate was sure strange, but he had enough tact to know when not to bring something up.

"Sora-kun," Mitsuri had also forgot his dinner and was looking at Sora with a serious look. "I think that this is just stress from your exams. But if you keep it up, I'm going to have to take you to the nurse. And you know that you'll be sent to the hospital for them to look into your brain again."

Sora let that last sentence repeat in his mind several times. "Hospital...what?"

The blonde was really thinking of Sora's best interests. "Ever since your fall last year, you've only had to go back to the hospital once because of your strange behavior. You're one of my best friends, I don't want you to have to go back, but I will speak with the nurse if you continue acting so strange."

"My...fall." Had that really been over a year ago? It had been because...but Mitsuri wasn't listening to that anymore. He wasn't believing anything Sora was saying about Sunao, so there was no point in saying anymore.

"Now, don't go scaring off your new roomie so quickly." Mitsuri had resumed eating his dinner. "That kid is a year younger than you, you know."

Sora blinked. "Younger?"

"He's smart, skipped a grade. Maybe he'll help you with your exams." The blonde grinned at that last comment. "Anyway, he seems shy, so don't scare him off, really."

"Me?" Sora said, pointing to himself. "Scare him off? What would ever give you that idea?"

Mitsuri used a chopstick to point at the blue eyes. "Well, you've got this weird look in your eyes that can only mean mental scarring for the timid..."

>

"Takashi-san, I hear that you're pretty smart." Sora exclaimed as they entered the room later on that night, close to bed time. Yuki crossed the room to sit on his bed, looking across at Sora who was sitting on his own.

Yuki stared at him, wondering what he wanted, before nodding slightly. "I...guess..."

"Great! Because I've got a mystery on my hands that I need some help with!" Sora said with excitement in his voice, if only to make Yuki think this was fun. "Do you like mysteries, Takashi-san?"

"Well...I like to read mystery novels sometimes."

Even better. Sora was going to figure out what had happened with Sunao if it killed him. While he was still trying to believe that this was all just a dream, the longer the dream went on, the less he believed that it really was.

"Okay, this mystery is about a nonexistent boy named Fujimori Sunao..."

>

>

Two chapters in one day. I only expect this fic to be about...five, six chapters long at the most. Also, I hate Really, I do. It used to be so much easier back in the good ol' days. I haven't posted on here in nearly a year and now I come back to everything being difficult.

So, wondering where Sunao is?

In chapter 3: Yuki helps Sora search for any word of Sunao, and finds somes interesting things. But how can he continue to go on humoring Sora?


	3. Chapter 3

Nonexistent.  
Chapter Three  
>

Takashi Yuki had never been very strong willed. And if he was and ever was able to tell a person 'no', then perhaps he wouldn't be helping some weird boy he barely knew look for someone who didn't exist. Where was the logic in that? It was a complete waste of time, but when Sora had told him all about this nonexistent student, this Fujimori Sunao, Yuki hadn't been able to tell him 'no'.

During dinner, when he had left Sora and Matsuri, he had spoken with a group of boys who invited him over to their table. Although Yuki hadn't asked, that would be wrong, those boys told him all about Sora. About how he fell from a fourth story window over a year ago and hadn't been quite right in the head ever since. Oh, he was nice enough, they told him, it was just that he sometimes went into strange episodes.

But like how you're not supposed to wake a sleep walker, Yuki couldn't bring himself to tell Sora that the reason his nonexistent friend wasn't known by anyone else and was around was because...well, he didn't exist.

Yuki was playing along half because he wasn't sure what to say to such a person who seemed so sure in their make believe, half because he didn't want Sora to hit him.

Sora had explained everthing to him. About him and his nonexistent friend being kidnapped as children and being lab rats. About how the math professor and school nurse had rescued the two children, only that this 'Fujimori Sunao' didn't excape and spent years and years alone in that horrible place. How the make believe friend had enrolled in school, was even Sora's roommate, and decieved everyone, because he had wanted revenge for Sora letting him go and leaving him behind all those years prior.

The story got even better.

When Sunao had gotten his payback, he then learned that Sora hadn't let him go on purpose and that everything was the fault of the evil lab director person. When the make believe boy had figured out his mistake, he thought his world was over, but Sora came as his knight in shining armor and rescued him. And to give the story a bit more of a romantic turn, as they were running away, Sunao had tripped, as he had when they were children, trying to excape. But Sora, strong as he was, broke free of the evil lab director person's spell and didn't let go of Sunao's hand.

Touching.

He really thought he should have told Sora that his story would make a great novel, a perfect love story. Full of kidnapped children, mad scientists, and love. Although he wanted to tell Sora that the whole thing was just made up in his mind, Yuki couldn't bring himself to do it. It had to be because of that hopeful look in the older boy's eyes. That Yuki would be able to clear this whole mess up.

Yuki had studied very little pychology and wasn't sure if playing along was the right thing to do in Sora's case. He knew he should have gone straight to Mitsuri or to the school nurse, but he couldn't and agreed to help. One day, he prayed, he would recieve a back bone.

"So...um...Tuesday night, you went to bed. Wednesday morning Fujimori-san is no where to be found." Yuki had took an empty notebook and was now using it to write all of the facts down into it. Were facts that came from make believe really facts at all? "And nobody besides yourself can even remember him, correct?"

"That's right!" Sora nodded, wondering why he didn't think to write everything down. Perhaps when written, it would be easier to see a solution in words than it did just thinking. "I wondered why no one would remember Fujimori, but the only thing I can think of is drugs."

Yuki looked up from his notebook. "Drugs? What sort of drug can erase someone from memory? And if so, then why didn't it work on you?"

Sora shrugged. The two had changed into their sleepwear long ago, Sora in his boxers and a black tank, Yuki in yellow pajamas.

"Perhaps...that evil mad scientist guy..." Yuki had forgotten his name. "Perhaps he had friends? Scientist friends? And...I don't know..."

They decided to go to sleep for the night, to sleep on it. Yuki was plan tired out from just trying to pretend that he believed the older boy's crazy story. When the lights had been turned out and Yuki was nearly asleep, he heard a voice from across the room.

"Sunao...where are you?"

Although Yuki was firm in his belief that all of it was made up, he had to admit that the tone of those words almost broke his heart.

>

The next morning, Sora didn't speak of his nonexistent friend. All through his morning classes, Yuki wondered if Sora had come to his senses, and was glad. After all, who wants a crazy roommate? But when Sora came to him after all of the day's classes, he knew that it hadn't blown over yet.

"Takashi-san, do you know much about computers?"

And that's how Yuki found himself sitting in front of a computer in the computer lab, hacking into the school's personal database.

'I'm going to end up in jail...' He thought to himself. 'But it's either that or be murdered by this mental case...'

Sora was sure that there was something that could be found through the computer on Sunao. But he had never been too good with computers, which is why he found his new roommate to be even more of a help. The younger boy seemed to know his way around the internet pretty well. So well, in fact, that even though Yuki didn't like the idea of hacking into the school's database, Sora had a feeling that this was not the first time he had done such a thing.

The time past while Yuki continued to click away at the keyboard, Sora leaned back in his chair in boredom. But when Yuki finally said "I'm in.", Sora flung forward, grinning like mad, and rubbed the younger boy's head. Yuki ran his fingers through his hair to fix the mess Sora had made.

"What did you find?" Sora questioned, looking at the screen. All he saw were a bunch of names and numbers, he didn't understand what it meant. Where those student ID numbers?

Yuki scrolled down the screen. "This is the master list of students who have ever set foot in this school, starting from ten years ago."

"Bingo! And?"

The dark haired boy continued to scroll down. At one point, he typed a few charactors in, but he didn't speak. Sora noticed that there had sure been a lot of students in their school.

Nearly ten minutes later, Yuki closed the internet screen. Sora, who had been leaning back in his chair, looked back up.

"So?" He questioned.

Yuki turned towards him, looking down at his hands. He looked up at Sora, who's face looked so hopeful that he had found something--anything!--that Yuki's couldn't bare to look at him.

"There hasn't been a single person in this school named Fujimori Sunao." Yuki said softly.

Sora's face fell, but his hope wasn't no where near giving up. "Can you hack into the orphanage?"

Yuki looked back up at him, his eyebrows knit together. "...orphanage?"

Oh, the older boy's story had started when Sora and the make believe Sunao had been small children in an orphanage. While in the school's database, Yuki had glanced into Sora's file. It did say his guardian was an uncle.

So...Yuki found himself hacking into the system of said orphanage.

'Dear Lord...please keep me from going to jail or worse.'

It was starting to get late in the evening, they hadn't even gone to dinner. But Sora remained by Yuki's side, praying that the younger would find something at all about Sunao.

But Yuki was starting to get sleepy, his eyes hurting from being at the computer for such a long time. When he finally got into what he wanted, he checked everything and turned to Sora, a bit too tired to care about his feelings anymore, although still watching himself, due to the fact that crazy people could get out of a murder charge.

"Fujimori-san is not in the orphanage's database." He said. "And all it says about you is that you were taken from the orphanage at the age of eight by your uncle, who is now your legal guardian. It says your brother's adoption was private and that those files are not computerized."

Sora stared at Yuki for a very, very long time. Long enough for Yuki to start to sweat slightly, worrying that Sora was about to attack him. Like a lion's prey, Yuki tried to remain very, very still, but was shaking slightly. Sora was going to hurt him for not telling him that Sunao's name was in the computer.

But Sora's answer surprised Yuki.

"...brother?" Sora swallowed hard, wondering if he had heard his roommate right. He didn't have a brother...right? "I have...?"

Yuki then understood. Sora didn't know that he had a brother, but there it was, written on the internet page in black characters.

Yuki explained. "I found it in the part where it says that you came to the orphanage." He moved the mouse around and then typed a bit in, searching for what he had been looking at moments ago. "Here we go. Your parents were in a car accident. ' Sora, two years. Baby Boy, one day.' And it says 'Older brother left with nanny on day of accident. Brought in by nanny and officer'."

"And? What...what else?" Sora was finding himself feeling rather light headed. Not only was Sunao not in the orphanage computer, but there was word of a brother he had never known of. And now he knew just how his parents had died, he had never known before.

Yuki shook his head. "Apparently, your parents died on the way to the hospital. The baby was delievered and survived...I think anyway, that's why it just says Baby Boy. It says that many couples came forward wanting to claim the baby, your brother. He was adopted out very soon after."

Sora leaned forward, looking at the words that meant 'brother'. "Anything that says where he would be now, his name?"

"I said before, it says that all his adoption was private and that those files are not computerized." Yuki said. "I can't see something that isn't on the computer."

A brother. A baby brother. Well, he wouldn't be a baby, he would be just two years younger than he was. For a moment, Sora thought of Sei, the boy from the elementary school that looked so much like him, but that boy would be much too young.

But maybe he only had a baby brother in this dream world?

After all, Sunao's name was no where. At all. And Sora knew that Sunao had been in that orphanage with him, that they had been as close as real brothers.

This was really starting to be a headache.

Yuki yawned, barely having enough time to cover his mouth with his hand. Sora glanced up at him, coming out of his thoughts. It was late, much to late to not already be in the dorm. It wasn't encouraged for students to be out so late, although most teachers would slid if told they were out so late because they were studying for the upcoming exams.

"Ready for bed, Takashi-san?" Sora questioned, standing and stretching his legs. They had been there for so long, missed dinner and all, but he really was more tired than hungry.

Yuki shut down the computer and left the computer lab with Sora, heading towards the dorms. It was dark now, Sora was looking up at the bright stars as they walked, wondering where Sunao was at that moment. Glancing over at the taller boy, Yuki remembered what he had heard Sora whisper the night before, in bed.

'Sunao...where are you?'

Yuki stopped walking, just the memory of those heart breaking words hitting him. Sora, not paying attention, kept walking several more steps until he finally noticed that he had left the other behind. He stopped and turned.

"Takashi-san?" Sora questioned, walking back to the other boy.

The dark haired boy was looking down at his feet. Sora, his new roommate, was completely insane. He believed nonexistent person, an imaginary friend, existed. He had looked at him with such bright hope that Yuki could figure everything out. Hope that only a small child should have.

Why?

Why did he have to be so hopeful? It would have be a lot easier on Yuki to tell Sora that he was crazy and didn't want to help search for this 'Fujimori Sunao' anymore if the older boy just wasn't so damn hopeful.

"Do you not feel well?" Yuki looked up at Sora, his blue eyes watering. Why did he have to be so hopeful? "You're crying...what wrong?"

"I...I..."

They were in the middle of the sidewalk, but Sora sat pulling Yuki down to sit beside him. "Alright now, tell me what's wrong. It's not good to keep everything all bottled up, you know."

He spoke as if he was speaking to a good friend, even if he had only known Yuki for much less than a week. The fact that Sora was being so nice made his tears start to fall.

Yuki cried, rubbing his eyes with his fists. Sora 'shhh'ed him and conforted him like any good friend would for another. That only made things even worse, because Yuki was feeling horrible for thinking so much that Sora was insane and that Fujimori-san didn't exist, yet helped him search as if he did believe.

"I...I lied...to you...!"

Sora was taken back a bit. He thought that perhaps his roommate, never being away from home before, was homesick. Or that maybe someone had teased him. What could he had lied about? He used his fingertips to brush away the tears from Yuki's face and let him continue.

"Because...I figured you had just made Fujimori-san up in your head...but I didn't want to tell you that, so I was helping you anyway..." Yuki covered his face with his hands. "But you keep looking so hopeful and...and...I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Now Sora understood. Yuki was upset because he had just been playing along.

"So...all this time you've helped look for Fujimori..." Sora said slowly. "You've just been humoring me?"

Yuki nodded, moving his hands away from his eyes. He wasn't sure he knew what the tone Sora was using meant. When the older boy suddenly moved, Yuki flinched.

Sora dropped his hand on the younger boy's head, messing with his hair. "That's okay. You don't have to believe me if you can't. But...do you think you could at least keep humoring me for a little while longer?"

The dark haired boy stared with his wet eyes. He couldn't believe it, none of it, what Sora was saying.

"How can you...believe so strong in someone that everyone else knows doesn't exist?" He questioned.

Sora thought for a moment. "I'm never going to let go of his hand again, even if this is all made up in my mind. And it could be just in my mind, I guess. But I think that I'm going to keep holding onto Sunao, no matter what."

>  
>

I spent most of this chapter explaining Yuki's thoughts and feelings. He is going to be one of the main characters of the story, alongside Sora. He's a bit of a wimp, or so it seems like from him crying in this chapter. So, Sora's got a kid brother now. I noticed the anime didn't explain Sora and Sunao's past very well, he says at one point that he has no parents, but it never gives you an explaination on why or when or how.

I'm still wondering which direction to take this story. There's three different ways I can move the plot and I'm not sure yet which way it's going to go.

PS: at the end of my last chapter, I was ranting about hating something. I didn't notice that that thing I dislike didn't show up in the words. I wonder if it'll show up this time? If not...what, is it a bad thing I'm not allowed to say, the name of this site? I dunno...  
edit: bwa, it didn't show up this time either. And I can't even put it in with the edit/preview feature. That's silly...

In chapter 4: Mitsuri worries a bit more about Sora's mental health and finally tells an adult. Now, how can Sora search for Sunao if he's in a hospital?


	4. Chapter 4

Nonexistent.  
Chapter Four

>

It was the little things that Sora kept remembering. How Sunao was picky about having his rice just so. How every night before bed, Sunao would untie his long hair and brush it out until it was silky and not a single knot remained. Once, Sora had took the brush and wanted to brush that hair, but Sunao wouldn't let him because he tugged too hard. How Sunao would bite the end of his pen if he were having trouble in class.

The little things that kept popping up in Sora's mind was what was driving him crazy. He didn't know why he kept thinking about all of those little habits of Sunao's, but he would be reminded of something every few minutes, it seemed.

The week before, he had sworn that he wouldn't let go of Sunao. He wasn't going to lose hope, no matter what. But that was a week ago. An entire week, seven entire days, had gone by since that night with Yuki. And while he still believed that Sunao existed, Sora was just as close to finding him as he was the morning he had vanished.

He knew Yuki didn't believe him. His new roommate was shy and didn't say what he was thinking. But even after that little burst of emotion a week ago, the younger boy was still trying to help him search. Yuki had been a lot more help than Sora had first thought, not only could he hack into a school's files, he had gone through a government database. While Sora still knew beans about computers, he did know that couldn't have been very easy. Of course, everything came up with nothing, but Yuki really was trying.

Out of anyone who would hurt Sora in his search, he would never have imagined that it would be Matsuri.

It happened the next morning, during one of his morning classes. He had been not at all paying attention, instead, he had been writing the name 'Sunao' across a blank sheet of paper. There was a bit of a racket as the door had opened, an unknown man spoke with the professor for a moment.

"Sora? Could you come with me for a moment?" The professor asked, turning from the unknown person. All eyes turned on Sora, who blinked in a 'who, ME?' sort of look. What had he done now? But not wanting to cause any more trouble in the class, he stood and gathered his things.

Yuki, who sat several rows in front of him, suddenly became wide eyed. He waved for Sora's attention, but the other boy just waved, figuring that he would just speak to him later.

As Sora reached the front of the room, he could see a student with all blonde hair standing just outside of the door, giving him an attempt at a sorry grin. He froze, knowing that something was not right at all. A lot of things then happened at once.

Yuki had over turned his chair as he jumped up, yelling for Sora to run.

Sora's body jerked to start running, not quite knowing what was going on.  
The unknown man grabbed Sora.  
There was a sharp pain in his arm.  
And then everything went black.

>

"Hashiba Sora."

He was waking, but having a hard time of it. His head felt so heavy, every part of his body felt heavy. But he fought to open his eye lids.

He didn't see a sight he liked.

"Aizawa!"

The man nodded. He was sitting on a nearby chair, wearing a long white jacket, clipboard on his lap. His hands were folded gently across the clipboard.

"Good evening, Hashiba." Aizawa greeted.

Sora attempted to sit up in the bed, not liking to being lying down near the man, but he was having trouble moving. He just felt so heavy. But this was the biggest break in his search for Sunao. This man, this man had been the one in the lab. The one who did all of those horrible things. He knew about Sunao!

There were possible plots running through Sora's head. One of the most possible that he could think of was that Aizawa had kidnaped Sunao and drugged everyone to forget about him. Only, Sora didn't forget, or maybe he needed Sora too. And now everyone would be drugged to forget about him too.

"Where...where is he?" Sora snapped, finally able to pull himself into a sitting position. He would fight him, if he had to, to find out where Sunao was. Even if he could barely sit up or keep his eyes open, he swore he'd do all he could to get any sort of information away from this evil man.

"Where is who, exactly, Hashiba?" Aizawa questioned calmly.

His calm expression was what drove Sora crazy. All the time, so calm, thinking his was a damn well God!

Sora nearly growled at him. "Sunao. Where is Sunao, you creep!"

Aizawa glanced down at his clipboard. He flipped the page over and fingered through some words before looking back up at Sora.

"Fujimori Sunao."

Finally! Someone knew of him! Sora was right in thinking that Aizawa knew, it was him behind everything! The man was complete evil and this just showed it!

"Yeah? And where is he!" Sora wanted to strangle the man sitting so close to him. If his body would move properly, he would. They must have given him something, back before he blacked out. Something to sedate him, perhaps?

Aizawa stared him down. "Hashiba, where is he?"

This question threw Sora for a loop. What in the world was he trying to play now?

"Wouldn't it be nice, if to have our own, special friend, we could just imagine him up?" Aizawa questioned. "Someone we could blame for our mistakes. Someone who would be there for us, no matter what? Or perhaps in your case, someone to help us make our lives much more interesting?"

"In...teresting?" Sora repeated.

Aizawa stood, clipboard in hand. "You think about that. I'll be back in the morning. Sleep well."

He left the room, the door shutting softly behind him.

Sora stared at the door, completely lost at this point. This dream world was really started to be too confusing to even understand anymore.

"...what...the...hell..."

>

That night went by with very little sleep. Sora had attempted to run away, but found the door had been locked. The window had bars on it. There was no way to escape.

With time to think, he now understood what had happened. Matsuri had done what he had threatened to do and went to the adults. They had shipped him off...somewhere. And since when was Aizawa a doctor? Wasn't he supposed to be a scientist?

But what had Aizawa been spewing? And why did he seem to think that Sora already knew were Sunao was? It had sounded like he believed Sora was making it all up with the 'wouldn't it be nice to imagine a friend' crap. What if he had imagined Sunao, which he hadn't really believed before even when Yuki had brought it up. That thought was starting to go through his mind more often.

'What if...I'm crazy?'

Maybe he did just make Sunao up. That was now a possible thought. Maybe he had been lonely, or scared. And like how he believed his story of being kidnaped as children and creating Yoru, maybe he had created Sunao just the same. He even have his make believe Sunao create his own alter ego, Ran, that way he wouldn't have mental issues alone.

The more he thought about this possibility, the more it scared him.

>

Aizawa came that morning, just as he said he would. At nearly ten AM, the door opened and the man Sora had hated and feared for more than half of his life walked in the door.

"Good morning, Hashiba, how are you doing today?" He questioned as he crossed the room to sit in the chair beside him.

He sat in the same fashion as the day before, clipboard in lap, hands calmly crossed.

"I've been better..." Sora said, rather truthfully. He would have felt much better if he was just waking up in his own bed, Sunao in the other.

Aizawa nodded. "Did you think about what I spoke about yesterday?"

Sora almost glared. He had thought about that nearly all night, not even on purpose, now not being able to not worry that he was making Sunao up.

"It's not healthy for someone your age to worry so much, you know." Aizawa was saying, his eyes calmly placed on Sora's own. "Why don't you tell me your life's story, Sora? From birth to right at this moment."

His...life story?

But Sora thought quickly. If he had made up Sunao, what if what he believed had happened in his life really hadn't happened? Either way, if something was wrong, Aizawa would never let him leave this horrible hospital. Of course, Aizawa was evil, so he was most likely going to kill him or experiment on him anyway...whatever.

"Why don't you tell me my life story, you know it." Sora spoke.

Aizawa was silent for several moments, looking at the teen's face. Sora didn't back down or show what he was feeling, just looked back with that same, calm look.

"You were born in Tokyo." The old man finally spoke. "You're parents died when you were two, in a car accident. You and your younger brother were sent to an orphanage, but he was adopted out quickly."

There was that 'brother' word again. It seemed like what Yuki had found on the internet had been true.

"You were lonely as a child, but had one friend outside of the orphanage, Honjo Matsuri." He continued. "When your friend moved far away, you had no one else to turn to. That is when we believe you first 'met' Sunao."

That was wrong, seeing as Sunao had known Matsuri too, but being how the blonde seemed to not remember Sunao either, than that counted for nothing. Really, how could even Matsuri not remember Sunao?

"At eight, your uncle took you from the orphanage and became your guardian. You were teased in the public school and Sunao came more often. Your best friend." Aizawa glanced down at his clipboard. "At fourteen, you were first brought to the hospital because you would often speak to nobody and this concerned your uncle. And last year, you fell out of a fourth story window, claiming that Sunao pushed you."

Sunao pushed him?

"And now, here we are again, discussion Sunao again, although I thought we had agreed that Sunao was nonexistent last year." Aizawa looked back up at him. "Does that seem about right, Hashiba?"

Sora stared for a few seconds, taking in this story that he did not at all believe. An uncle? Sunao pushing him out of a window?

Aizawa leaned forwards, his face inches away. "Let him go."

At those words, Sora flipped out and it took three people to sedate him.

I wasn't going to end there, I was going to keep going a bit. But I ended there just because it was such a great place to stop. I figure that 'flipping out' would be exactly how Sora would react to Aizawa telling him to 'let go' of Sunao.

>  
>  
>

Already into chapter four and I'm still not exactly sure how I'm going to end this. I had planned for only about five-six chapters...but I've been making these chapters so short. Usually, I'd combine two or three of these short chapters into one, but...meh, whatever, it's still the same amount of words to read. Since these chapters are so short, I'm now thinking that it'll be about seven or eight chapters long.

In chapter 5: Yuki comes to the rescue!...or does he?


	5. Chapter 5

A little note before we start...this chapter is going to get confusing. I mean, really, confusing. So, sorry ahead of time for that.

>

Nonexistent.  
Chapter Five

>

"So, I hear that you gave Dr. Aizawa a nice headache!"

Sora glanced over at the door, a formilar face strolling in. Ryouya Kozuki, or as most people knew him as, Ayano-chan. He was holding his pink rabbit puppet, as always.

"Although, Dr. Aizawa's ego is over inflated..." He held up the rabbit and made his voice a bit higher. "It's not nice to hit others!"

Sora smirked, although he didn't sit up. He couldn't, you see, because they had tied him down. Something about causing harm to others...

"Don't you think I'm a little too old for that?" Sora questioned.

Ayano-chan grinned and sat on the end of the bed. "I haven't seen you in ages, have I? I think I saw you once, after your fall, didn't I?"

Sora's wrists and ankles had been tied down, plus they have shot him up with some sort of sedative, although that was pretty much worn off by that time. He listened to Ayano-chan lecture him for a while, at times using the rabbit plushie, but didn't add too much to the conversation. It was the same as all the other times everyone kept telling him that he was crazy and how he needed to forget all about Sunao.

After Ayano-chan left, Sora went back to what he had been doing before...staring at the ceiling. There wasn't much else to do, now was there?

'Well...now what?'

>

The door opened again a while later and there were soft footsteps, but no one spoke. The door didn't shut close.  
Sora turned to face the door, nearly jumping out of his skin when he found a face inches away from his own.

"Shh...!"

"Takashi!" Sora exclaimed, but he was just shushed again.

The dark haired boy was trying to untie the bonds that held Sora down, but his hands were shaking and he was having trouble doing so. He was helping a someone escape out of the mental ward of a hospital. How that would affect his nerves was anybodies guess. Yuki finally got Sora's wrists free, and both worked to free his ankles.

Sora shook his head as he sat up, running a hand through his hair. "How in the world...Takashi, how in the world did you get in here?"

The smaller boy shrugged and looked away. "It wasn't that hard...if you want to get out of here, we've got to hurry before he comes."

"He? Aizawa?" Sora questioned.

"Sure..."

Yuki had left a pen sitting in the door so it wouldn't close and lock, a brilliant idea. But Sora still couldn't figure out how he planned to get out of the hospital without being seen. When they sneaked out into the hall, there wasn't a single sign of anybody near. This was his big chance to break free.

And it was horrible how much it reminded him of escaping the lab, all those years ago. He was almost waiting for a loud alarm to start going off, hoards of men in lab coats running down the hall...

Yuki had led him into a stairwell, both hurrying down the stairs as fast as they could. They kept going down, past the third floor, past the second, the first, until there was the sign across the door at the bottom of the stairs that read 'basement'. How they were going to get out from the basement, Sora wasn't sure, but he was sure that Yuki had already worked out an escape plan. After all, the younger boy didn't seem the type to just blindly rush into something.

Before opening the door to the basement, Yuki glanced back towards Sora, who blinked. Why did the Takashi boy look so depressed, or maybe worried? They were almost free!

"Before we go any further..." Yuki said slowly. "I just want to say that I'm sorry..."

That threw Sora for a loop. Whatever Yuki was talking about...couldn't they do that after they escaped the big, bad, hospital place?

Sora shook his head. "Whatever it is, later, okay?"

The shorter boy nodded, then opened the door to the basement. Although it was a basement, it didn't fit right, being inside of a hospital. The lights were out, leaving the lower level of the building pitch black, it was freezing, and there was the harsh smell of mildew.

Sora reached out to grab onto Yuki's shoulder, as to not get separate, but he missed. Had they already been separate?

"Takashi? Where are you?" Sora hissed through the darkness.

There was a grunting sound from far ahead. "I'm...damn...hold on...!"

What was Yuki doing?

But before Sora could ask or try to move in that direction, the lights suddenly blasted on, painfully blinding his blue eyes for several seconds. When he opened his eyes, he froze, looking around. They were not in the basement of a hospital, he knew that much. It was the basement of a home. The stairwell that he and Yuki had just came down seconds ago had vanished, now replaced with cold, brick wall.

"What in the hell..."

"Hashiba Sora."

He spun, that horrible man there once again, much too close. Why couldn't that man just crawl under some rock and die already? Sora backed away, glaring at Aizawa.

"I knew this was all a big plot from you!" The blue haired boy snapped. "What is it that you want this time?"  
The older man just smirked, as if he owned the whole damn world and knew everything.

"For the moment, I couldn't care much less about you. You do know, the world does not revolve around you." Aizawa spoke. The man looked past Sora, his smirk turning into a cold glare. "Do you think that you can just disobey me? That I wouldn't know?"

Sora turned, following Aizawa's gaze. Yuki stood by what looked to be a locked closet, his eyes wide.

The younger boy looked ready to burst into tears. "I...I..."

Yuki was working with Aizawa.

Seconds went by, Yuki stammering. Sora was too shocked to move, to speak, to think. That boy, the same one who had been helping him so much in searching for Sunao...was working with Aizawa? How could that happen? That same person who had cried just because of feel guilt of not believing Sora, he was with that evil, evil man.

"I know everything you do." Aizawa said calmly, though still with the same glare fixed at the younger boy. "I've known ever since the very moment you first started to truly help him what you were doing. But I let you bring him here, without any trouble. Do you know why that is, Yuki?"

Sora watched as the dark haired boy shook his head slowly.

"Because now I'm going to finish this." The man answered. "The other will be taken care of and Sora will be completely destroyed and this will be finished."

"No...no...!" Yuki whispered, sliding down to his knees.

Sora now had no clue what Aizawa was talking about, talking about taking care and finishing...something. What was he babbling about? But he was still too much in shock that Yuki had something to do with everything. How could someone like Yuki, who seemed more sensitive than a girl at times, could be involved? Granted, he hadn't known the younger boy more than a week, but still.

The older boy moved in front of Aizawa, blocking his glare. "Look...I don't understand what's going on. But you'd sure as hell better explain..."

"You want an explanation?" Aizawa questioned. For some odd reason, the man seemed out of character to Sora, but he wasn't all too worried about that at the moment.

Aizawa took a step forward, but Sora did not back down. "You, Hashiba Sora, are a bad person, simple as that. You leave those around you to a life of pain and of suffering. And because of that, this that has happened to you, Fujimori Sunao disappearing, all of this, is part of your punishment. This is where you will be the one who is stuck with the suffering..."

His words echoed slightly off of the damp walls. Pain and suffering.

The first thing to flash through Sora's mind, without thinking, was that time, long ago, as a small child. Running down a long hall, alarms ringing. And letting go, letting go, he let go of Sunao! Just remembering that memory, no matter how long ago, made his stomach sink in a horrible way.

So...Aizawa was punishing him for letting go of Sunao, all those years ago?

From behind him, Sora could hear Yuki pulling himself up and move forward to stand beside him.

"But you don't understand! It was a misunderstanding, I think!" Yuki exclaimed clasping his hands tightly together in front of his chest. He wasn't, but seemed to be close to tears. "What we thought he had did to me, to us, he didn't do it on purpose! He didn't know that we even existed!"

To Sora, it seemed that every time someone opened their mouth, more confusing things kept popping out of it.  
Before he could react, Aizawa had grabbed Yuki by the arm and yanked him away from Sora.

"Let him go!" Sora snapped, but was ignored. He wanted to move, to hit the evil man, but what sort of weapon could he had been holding? That, and Sora was still just to confused to move.

Aizawa smirked at Yuki's fear-streaked face. "Do you think it even matters anymore? We've already started this and you know as well as I do that it must be seen to the end. Don't be so gullible, it may seem as if he didn't do it on purpose, but you know that he can be blamed just as well as anyone else."

Sora shook his head. "What in the hell are you talking about!"

"Oh." The man let go of Yuki and turned. He seemed to be enjoying this. "I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?"

Introduced...?

"My name is Takashi Yuki." Aizawa said, bowing his head slightly. "It's nice to meet you, Hashiba Sora."

With that said, Aizawa changed. His hair became shorter and changed color completely, into a deep blue. His eyes changed to nearly the same exactly shade of Sora's own. He grew shorter, thinner. His clothes changed into a black shirt, black pants.

Aizawa had completely changed into Yuki. The Yuki, the 'real' Yuki, wearing the white shirted school uniform, took a few steps away.

Sora's mouth had fell slightly open, he could hardly breath. This dream was becoming stranger and stranger. There were now two Yuki's in front of him, one looking horrified, the other smirking. He remembered thinking only minutes before how he didn't think Aizawa was acting in character...and now he knew why. That man hadn't been Aizawa. The person behind this whole plot, the person who had stolen Sunao...was...

...who exactly was Takashi Yuki, anyway?

And then he thought he knew. "Takashi Yuki...does not exist in the real world."  
In the world he was used to, Sunao existed. In this world, Yuki existed.

But that theory didn't seem quite right. And both Yuki's cried, at the same time, "I do too exist!"

It was the Yuki in black, the one that had changed from Aizawa that stepped forward, glaring up at Sora.

"I exist here. I exist there." He growled. He pointed at Sora. "You're the one who shouldn't exist! You cause pain. People like that shouldn't exist!"

"But I didn't do anything!" Sora snapped.

The Yuki in black smacked Sora across the face. "That's the point! You...did...nothing...!"

That he disappeared.

Sora and the Yuri in white stared at each other for several seconds. Not less than ten seconds passed before the older boy rushed forward, grabbing Yuri from around the collar and pushed him up against the locked closet door.

"You're going to tell me now exactly what's going on." Sora said calmly, but with a hint of threat in his voice. "You're going to tell me where Fujimori is and why nobody knows him. You're going to explain why there are two of you. And you'd better do it fast."

Yuri gulped and nodded slowly. "I'll...I'll tell you everything..."

Sora let him go, but didn't move. This was it, he was finally going to hear everything, to understand everything.

One step closer to finally finding Sunao.

>  
>

Aha, so, here we are. Next chapter should end just this all, maybe a chapter seven to wrap it all up.

PS: while spell checking, I think I may have gotten a few of the names caught into the spell checker by accident. But I've looked through two or three times and I can't find it...so...yesh.

In chapter 6: Sora finally finds Sunao...but can he rescue him?


	6. Chapter 6

Nonexistent.  
Chapter Six

>

Sora and the Yuki in white stared at each other for several seconds. Not less than ten seconds passed before the older boy rushed forward, grabbing Yuki from around the collar and pushed him up against the locked closet door.

"You're going to tell me now exactly what's going on." Sora said calmly, but with a hint of threat in his voice. "You're going to tell me where Fujimori is and why nobody knows him. You're going to explain why there are two of you. And you'd better do it fast."

Yuki gulped and nodded slowly. "I'll...I'll tell you everything..."

Sora let him go, but didn't move. This was it, he was finally going to hear everything, to understand everything.

One step closer to finally finding Sunao.

"I'm waiting..." Sora said when the younger boy didn't speak.

Yuki was trying to figure out where to begin. "Well...I don't know why, exactly, there are two of me. We're not two different people, we're not twins. We're one person. Only at one point, my mind broke and spilt into two. That other Yuki is part of my mind with certain emotions, thoughts, and feelings, and I'm a part with others. The other one decided that we needed to have revenge on you...so he made up this plan to destroy you."

That made very little sense to Sora. But it did oddly remind him of himself and Yoru.

"But why can't anyone besides me remember Fujimori?"

"It was part of the plan." Yuki explained, wringing his hands nervously. "If Fujimori-san was taken away from your entire world, but you kept the memory of him, if we thought that sooner or later you'd go insane, or something like that."

Sora stared at him for several seconds. Although that was a horrible, evil plan...he had to admit that it had been working, somewhat.

"What we didn't expect, though, was how much you believed in Fujimori-san." Yuki shook his head. "It was thought that you would give up on him within days. Than later, when you believed that you were making him up, we would show him to you and further make you doubt your sanity. But you just believed in him too much. You wouldn't let him go, so, the plan didn't work.

"But the reason why no one else would remember him, the reason your past was so different, was because that's how we made it to be."

This confused Sora...even further. He had thought everyone had been drugged, or something of the sort.

"How can you...make something be?" The blue haired boy asked slowly.

Yuki's blue eyes stared into Sora's for a while, unsure of what to say. Sora wondered how this could be, how could they make something be?

Yuki dropped his eyes. "Hashiba, this is not the real world. This is just all an illusion in your mind."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

How could it have not been the real world? School had been there, same as ever. Everyone, except Sunao, had been there, acting the same as usual. How could his mind have created such an illusion? Again, he was strongly reminded of how he had created Yoru...but why would he create something so horrible? Such a horrible plot?

"You, Hashiba, are in a deep sleep right now." Yuki said softly. "And so is Fujimori-san. That is how we are controlling this world, because it's all a dream."

"But...even if that is true," Sora said, not quite believing this at all, it was such a crazy story. "How would you be able to control a dream?"

Yuki looked up at the cracked ceiling. "Because I'm dreaming too."

Great, so everyone and their mother was now in a dream.

"It's not as simple as that though." Yuki continued, looking back down to Sora. "Look, I'm not exactly sure how this all works, it's that other part of me that put most of this together, I was just supposed to look after you. After you and Fujimori-san went to sleep that last night that you saw him, we took over your conscience, we controlled your dream. We decided what existed and what didn't."

So, he really was just in a nightmare...dreaming had been his very first guess to what was going on, after all, although he hadn't expected anything like this. This was all much too much and confusing.

"If this is just a dream...can't we just wake up?" Sora questioned.

The younger boy shook his head. "You can't and won't wake up until your conscience is freed from our control. The other me is the one who is in control and...and I can't stop him."

Fine. So Sora now knew what was going on. Finally. After all this time wondering, all this time trying to piece everything together...he finally knew. But there was still the biggest question of all: Sunao.

"Takashi. Where is Fujimori?"

Yuki blinked up at him. This was the most simple answer of it all. "Fujimori-san is behind me."

Sora looked past Yuki, jumping slightly. Sunao was so close? A door, the locked closet door, which was the only other thing in the small room they stood in. He moved Yuki to the side and grabbed at the doorknob, although there was a thick, metal lock at eye-level. There was no key in sight.

Sunao was behind this door? He had to unlock it! Sora remembered how the scene had changed not too long ago, from the hospital stairwell to this room. He turned to Yuki, who had been just watching him with wide eyes.

"You said this world is an illusion. That you decided what existed or not" Sora jiggled the lock. "If it is, than you can make this lock go away, you can open this door."

Yuki took a step back, as if Sora had asked him something horribly impossible. "I can't open that door!"

That was the loudest Sora had ever heard the smaller boy speak. But even if he did look scared to death, Sora was in a hurry to find Sunao, to be with Sunao.

"Just open the God damn door, Takashi!" Sora snapped grabbing onto his shoulder and shaking him slightly. He didn't have time for this.

"NO!" Yuki nearly snapped, breaking away from him and taking several more steps away, until his back hit a wall. "I'm never going to go into that stupid room again!"

Whatever the hell Yuki was freaking out over, Sora hadn't a clue. "You don't have to go in, I'll go in, just unlock it!"

There was silence for several seconds as Yuki looked from the door and back to Sora. Logic slowly moving in his mind. He was wringing his hands tightly together, looking as if he had seen a ghost. Why couldn't he just go into a stupid little room, most likely a closet, or something similar?

"You...you promise that I don't have to...go in?" Yuki asked softly, whining slightly.

Sora nodded slightly. "I'll go in, get Fujimori, and then come out. You don't need to go in."  
And Yuki believed him. Before Sora could say anything else, he watched as the thick lock on the door suddenly disappeared.  
It no longer existed. As he placed his hand on the knob, free of any locks, Yuki spoke up from behind him.

"Just know that...even if this is all in your mind, a dream...if you die here, you die there too..."

Sora kept that in mind as he twisted the old doorknob and pulled the thick door towards him, the hinges squeaking loudly. Yuki covered his eyes, as to not even see the inside of that room. Sora's bright blue eyes widened and his hand slowly fell from the doorknob.

The inside of the door was nothing but a small pantry, a place used to store food. Old shelves lined the three walls, although only the highest shelves, higher than Sora would barely be able to reach, were the only ones intact. All of the ones below were broken, a mess of splintered wood and nails. The floor was covered in the broken wood. There was a hanging light fixture above Sora's head, but there was no bulb, leaving the room's only light coming through the open door.

And there, at the other end of the small room, curled up on the dirty floor was a thin boy, with very long pink hair.

Fujimori Sunao.

Sora stared at him for seconds, frozen in the doorway. The blue haired boy's breath came slowly, as he forgot to breath at this moment. 'Sunao' his mind told him, but he wasn't able to move, blue eyes focused on the thin boy in his green pajamas.

"Nao-kun!"

He fell to his knees next to the boy his heart admitted he loved more precious than any other thing in the entire world and wrapped his arms around those smaller shoulders, pulling him up and letting that pink head rest on his chest. Sora tried to brushed away the dirt that clung to his beautiful face. All Sora wanted was for those pink eyes to open, he needed that more than anything.

"Nao-kun...Nao-kun, wake up." Sora spoke softly into the sleeping boy's ear. Sunao's body was so cold from the room that Sora tightened his embrace, wanting to feel his warmth again. "Nao-kun...you've got to wake up..."

Was he...?

Sora pushed the pink haired boy's chin up so that his gentle face was inches away from his own. He waited and soon he felt Sunao's warm breath as he breathed softly. Sunao was alive and breathing! Not able to help himself, so close to the one he truly loved, he brought his lips against the cold ones. Sunao stirred and as Sora moved his lips away, he watched as the pink eyes were revealed as his eye lids fluttered open.

"Good morning, my Sleeping Beauty." Sora whispered as Sunao rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, trying to wake up.

"Sleeping...what are you talking about?" Sunao questioned tiredly, looking up into those bright blue eyes. His pink eyes suddenly caught the room behind Sora, and glanced about, startled. "Where...where in the world are we?"

Sora glanced at the still-open door, where Yuki was standing, fearfully peaking in. Sunao followed the blue eyes to see the unknown boy standing just outside of the doorway, and looked back at Sora, confusion clearly written on his face.

"Hashiba--" Sora bent down and kissed Sunao on the lips gently to silence him.

When he moved away, he could see the surprise in the pink eyes. He spoke softly to him. "Nao-kun, we're in a nightmare." He stood and helped Sunao to his feet. "We need to get out of here, I'll answer everything later."

They started to make their way to the door, stepping over the broken wood in the process. Only feet away, Sora and Sunao could see Yuki's eyes suddenly grow wider than they had been and gasp loudly.

"Hurry, hurry, he's coming! He's--"

Yuki's voice went silent as a figure appeared in front of him, just inside of the door. It was the Yuki who had been wearing black, the Yuki that had been pretending to be Aizawa. He stood there, a horrible smirk on his face.

"Good morning, Fujimori, did you have a nice sleep?" He questioned. Sunao just stared at him, wondering how he had just appeared and why he looked identical to the other boy outside of the door.

"Let us out of here." Sora said calmly, but with a threat to his tone.

The dark Yuki's smirk increased. "You think that I would do that? Really now, you're a horrible person, but you can't be that stupid."

Sunao's eyebrows knitted together, not understanding at all what was going on. There were two identical boys and the one in front of them seemed to be a asshole. But who were they, and where did they come from?

"I let you be reunited with Fujimori for a reason, not so that you could wake up and leave this place." Yuki explained. "You see, I told you that this was the end. I'm going to win this game and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"Look, you--" Sora started, letting go to Sunao to step forward and grab the dark Yuki by his shoulders. Yuki only smiled at him and Sora could hear a muffled yell from behind him. He spun, kicking himself for not holding onto Sunao, and his eyes widened. Sunao was encased in a glass box, beating on the glass, his voice muffled. Sora snapped his head back to Yuki. "Let him go!"

The Yuki in white looked on from outside of the door, eyes still wide, and hands clasped tightly in front of his chest, praying for something good to happen.

The dark Yuki, however, never lost that horrible grin on his face. "I have seen your memories. Sora, how do you think it would feel to watch the one you love die from his one worst fear?"

Worst fear...?

Water!

As soon as Sora figured this out, he snapped his head back towards Sunao, blue eyes freezing at what he saw. Water was started to pour over the pink head, as if rain coming from the top of the glass box. It rained down on him and was quickly covering the bottom of the box, the water already up to his bare ankles.

Sora beat on the glass, kicked it as hard as possible. He hit so hard that his knuckles began to bleed, streaking the smooth glass with the crimson liquid. He couldn't help but see the crazed fear in Sunao's eyes, staring back at him, tears mixed in with the water that was soaking his face. The water was falling so fast that it was now reaching his slender hips.

The blue haired boy stopped beating the glass, seeing as that was doing nothing. He turned back to the dark Yuki, grabbing the smaller boy and shaking him.

"Let him go, I swear if you don't, I'll--"

Yuki shrugged a shoulder. "Do what? Knock me down? Don't waste your time, you've already done it once."  
Already done it once?

But Sora wasn't going to let nonsense babble distract him, the water was near up to Sunao's shoulders! He brought back a fist and punched the dark Yuki across the face.

Yuki stumbled back several steps, but did not fall. He stood, slowly, and brought a hand to his already bruising cheek and wiped away the drop of blood that had escaped from his cut lip.

He regained his smirk. "Did that help you, Hashiba? Really, did it? Now, be a good boy and watch your boyfriend drown."

Sora spun back around to the glass, finding the water just starting to raise above Sunao's mouth. The short boy stood on the tips of his toes to get one last deep breath before the water completely submerged him.

>  
>  
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Oh dear, Sunao appears after being missing for five prior chapters and now he's drowning. You'd think from this that I hate Sunao, but really he's one of my favorite characters.

Also, I lied. I need one more chapter to finish this up, then one to end everything. So, eight chapters in total. And I only thought this would be five-six when I started.

In chapter 7: Will Sora save Sunao from drowning? And how are they going to wake up from this horrible nightmare?


	7. Chapter 7

>  
Nonexistent.  
Chapter Seven  
>

He brought back a fist and punched the dark Yuki across the face.

Yuki stumbled back several steps, but did not fall. He stood, slowly, and brought a hand to his already bruising cheek and wiped away the drop of blood that had escaped from his cut lip.

He regained his smirk. "Did that help you, Hashiba? Really, did it? Now, be a good boy and watch your boyfriend drown."

Sora spun back around to the glass, finding the water just starting to raise above Sunao's mouth. The short boy stood on the tips of his toes to get one last deep breath before the water completely submerged him.

His long hair floated around his body, the cheeks on his face large from holding in his breath. His eyes were shut tight, a look of horror clearly written across his face.

"NO!" Sora screamed, rushing towards the glass and beating on it more, although that did no good. Looking back at the dark Yuki, he shook his head, shaking. "Let him go!"

"Beg." Yuki said simply.

Sora, not wanting to waste any of the precious seconds that were flying by, dropped to his knees in front of the dark-minded boy. "Please, please, please! Let him go before he drowns!"

The Yuki in white watched on from just outside of the door, staring in complete amazement. Maybe it was because he had never been in love before, or maybe because he had never had someone love him in any way, but what was unfolding before his blue eyes seemed like something out of a fairytale.

He had thought Sora's love for Sunao a strong thing before, back when Sora's eyes had shined with such hope that it had led Yuki to tears. But now, the love for Sunao that was radiating from Sora temporary forced the fear away from Yuki's mind. At the same moment Yuki's fear fled, Sunao lost hold on his breath and he choked, the air escaping from his mouth his large bubbles.

"STOP IT!"

Both Sora and the dark Yuki turned, finding the timid Yuki inside of the room he swore never to walk into. The glass holding Sunao disappeared, as Yuki willed it nonexistent in this dream world. The water crashed to the ground and slightly flooded the room as it spilled onto the floor and through the open door.

Sora caught Sunao before he hit the ground, wrapping his arms tightly around the wet boy. As Sora brushed the pink locks that were sticking to his forehead away, he found those pink eyes staring widely at him, warm tears rolling down his already wet cheeks.

"Sora-kun..." Sunao cried, shaking from both cold and fear. He didn't understand what was going on at all. First he'd been woken up by Sora, in a strange place he had never seen before. Then there were two identical boys. And then, like magic, this glass box had appeared, filling with water like rain. Sora had told him that this was a nightmare, and he was right. Because during the entire time Sora had searched for Sunao, the pink haired boy had been left to 'sleep' in that room, until he could later serve a purpose.

"No...no...!"

Sora and Sunao turned to see the white-wearing Yuki pushing his back against a corner near the door, his face completely white. While his fear had disappeared for seconds long enough to free Sunao, he was no match against his stronger counterpoint. He had explained to Sora that when his mind broke, he had split into two parts, each holding different emotions. It was now clear to Sora exactly which emotions each of the Yuki's held.

The Yuki in black held his darker, somewhat more dominant emotions. Anger. Hatred.

The Yuki wearing white held fear, sadness, but also feelings of hope, trust.

While the Yuki in white sat in the corner, hands covering his face, his black Yuki did little but smirk at him. "It's your own fought for coming in this room, you idiot."

Sora and Sunao stared at the boy, who was looking much smaller than he really was, seem to have a mental break down from doing little more than walking into the small room. The dark Yuki noticed their confused looks and explained, if only hoping to further Sora's guilt by some mean, any means.

"While this room is only an illusion created by my mind, it is based off of a real place. This is the last place I saw in the real world, in my real body, before I lost conscience." Yuki said, although this made little sense. But it soon did. "The two of you are only asleep because of my will. I, however, am in a coma."

A...coma.

The first thought that went through Sora's mind was 'why the heck do kids in coma's always have to come after me?', the second was 'but...why me?'.

The dark Yuki looked ready to end everything, but wanted to rant, as was part of the nature in the emotions this half of his mind held.

"I was walking home one day after school, in the middle of the daylight in a crowded street. I was then kidnaped and locked in this room in the real world." Yuki said angerly, his blue eyes boring into Sora's blue ones. "I was locked in here, in this dark, cold place, for ages, I don't even know how long. And what they did to me, they--"

"No!...Shut UP!" The Yuki in the corner said loudly, his eyes shut as tightly as possible and his hands cupped over his ears. "Don't say it...don't say!"

Sora and Sunao stared at the boy, both wanted to rush over and embrace him tightly in their arms, if only to make his hurting stop. What could have happened, something so bad that it broke his mind in two and put him into a coma?

The dark Yuki continued. "Maybe I'll do as my other half says, just this once."

Sora shook his head. "Fine, fine, so you're some kid who was kidnaped and put in a coma. Then you used your will to control our dreams. But why? Why us!"

"I already told you, Hashiba, you're a horrible person and you cause pain and suffering." The dark Yuki said, repeating what he had said ages ago. He waved one hand idly through the air. "It was indirectly because of you that I was kidnaped in the first place."

"And how in the hell was that?" Sora snapped, taking a step towards him, but not letting go of Sunao, who was too confused to speak.

Yuki sent the most hate-filled glare at him. "Because you knocked me down and then went to play with him!"  
He pointed towards Sunao.

Sora blinked, exchanging glances with Sunao. "I...what? Look, I've never seen you before this stupid dream!"

"Really? You lie." Yuki growled.

The white Yuki had let go of the hold on his ears, but still had his eyes painfully shut. When he spoke, he was quoting something he had read to Sora a while before. "Adoption was private and that those files are not computerized!"

Being so concerned with what was happening before him, Sora had no clue what he was talking about for several seconds. When it finally hit him, it confused him even further. Yuki had said that when they had been searching the computer for signs of Sunao, when he had ran over the fact that he had a brother. But what did that matter now?

"...so?"

The white Yuki snapped his eyes open, his blue eyes brighter than normal from crying. "It doesn't matter if they aren't computerized, I know what's in my own damn file!"

Sora choked on his breath, his eyes growing wider as he now completely understood what the Yuki in white had been babbling about.

Takashi Yuki was Sora's younger brother.

"But...but I never knew..." Sora studdered out, hardly able to breath because of the recent change in events. Sunao tightened his grip on Sora's arm, if only in an attempt to calm him.

The Yuki in white covered his eyes and started to cry some more as the dark Yuki moved in front of him, the same icy glare sent towards Sora.

"I was five. You were seven." The dark Yuki said with anger. "The couple that had originally adopted me divorced and neither wanted me and I was sent back to the orphanage. I met you, just once. I tried to tell you, because I knew you were my older brother. I knew what my true family name was. But you were too busy. You didn't care. You wanted to go play with your friend and you knocked me down and ran off."

"But I--"

Of all people to interrupt, it was Sunao, who spoke softly. "And then what happened to you?"

"A couple came that afternoon and was interesting in adopting me. I had a choice." Yuki said, remembering. "I remember being asked if I wanted to stay with my brother. But my brother didn't want me, he had knocked me away. And I was adopted. And because of that, I ended up being kidnaped years later."

Sora was shaking his head. "I don't remember that at all!"

"I do." He snapped his head towards the pink haired boy in his arms. "I remember seeing you do it. I was rushing you, though I don't remember where we were going. The only reason I remember is because when I yelled at you for being mean, you teased me and some other children laughed at me and it's always stuck with me. But..."

Sunao turned to face the dark Yuki. "But I don't think Sora-kun knew that boy was related in any way."  
The logic of it kept the Yuki in black silent for several seconds. The Yuki in white looked up, face tear stained.

"It doesn't matter." The Yuki in black said softly, shaking his head. "Nothing matter anymore. Nothing except punishing him."

Both Sora and Sunao froze, knowing that the angry Yuki was ready to will something horrible, something that may have ended up in them never waking up from this horrible nightmare.

"It's over." The white Yuki was up on his feet, both arms wrapped around the dark Yuki from behind. "This is over! There is nothing to punish Sora for! It's time that they wake up!"

Yuki was then pushed away, knocking painfully into the wall by his darker half.

Sora realized that these two parts of the same mind would never be able to fully defeat each other. Because that is how the mind worked, every emotion worked together in ways to help you live, to learn...right? After one, one with a whole mind didn't have their emotions fighting each other constantly, not like this. If Yuki's mind was healed...would Sora and Sunao be able to wake up?

"Yuki, you need to heal your mind back together, I know you can do it! You cannot survive like this, it isn't natural to fight one's own self! You don't need to listen to him!"

The dark Yuki spun around. "Keep your mouth shut!"

Even if he was very confused, Sunao did understand what the dark Yuki was doing. "You've been hiding that from the other you, haven't you?"

"I said to shut up!"

The Yuki in white looked between the three with wide eyes. He could...do what? The entire time since his mind had spilt into two, this half that was full of fear had let the other control him. To give him orders. And he took them willfully, not even thinking to ever disobey.

But he did disobey, didn't he? When he started to help Sora. Not the pretend help he had been giving, playing on the computer, but when he started to really help, freeing him from the hospital. He had done that on his own, without orders. And while he held the emotion of fear and the other didn't, that didn't mean that he wasn't capable of deciding things on his own.

"I guess...there is no emotion stronger than any other, is there?" Yuki spoke, his eyebrows knitted in thought.

The dark Yuki didn't like this sudden twist in events, but found himself suddenly unable to move. Although the Yuki in white held fear, he also held hope, and his blue eyes shined in the same way as Sora's had, his hope clear.

Sora and Sunao watched in awe as the white Yuki slowly disappeared into a white light. That same white light encased the Yuki in black, who didn't at all want to merge back with his weaker half.

"No! I can do so much without you!" The dark Yuki cried, trying to break away from the light.

As the darker Yuki slowly disappeared into a grey-shaded light, the two lights mixed and mingled, until it wasn't certain which had been which only seconds ago.

"Even if you're stronger without those other emotions..." Sora said slowly, Sunao glancing away from the light to look up at him. "I don't think you can't live without all of them."

The mix of light was now gaining form and again, turned into the boy with dark blue hair and eyes the same shade of blue as Sora's. But this Yuki now looked different than the other two versions. While not completely see-through, Sora and Sunao could just barely see the wall through him. And while the other two Yuki's, the split forms of his mind, had likened themselves to wear whatever clothes they wanted, this Yuki, the true Yuki, wore nothing more than a white hospital gown with blue trims.

"I think...that you're right, Sora." Yuki said, but his voice now had a slight echo to it. The emotion on his face was neither like the Yuki in white, who had shown mostly fear, or the Yuki in black, who had shown mostly anger. His face was calm, perhaps slightly happy. With his mind now back whole, the two sides of his mind were not fighting each other anymore, giving him a sense of peace after a long, hard war.

"What's going to happen now?" Sunao questioned.

Sora found himself watching Yuki bow to him, for now the third time. But this was the first time the true Yuki introduced himself.

"First, I must introduce myself. My name is Takashi Yuki. However, my true family name is Hashiba." He lifted his head. "And second, I must apologize. Throughout my entire life, whenever I felt like I needed to blame someone for something horrible in my life, I blamed you, Sora. And even you, Sunao, for taking him away from me. But I hid those dark feelings deep within my mind and I would never dream of acting on them.

"But after I was kidnaped, after I was locked in this room in the real world, those dark feelings became stronger..." He glanced down at his feet for a moment before looked back up at Sora. "Although it wasn't because of those feelings that my mind broke in two, but when it did broke, those feelings had a host of it's own, without any other emotions to hide it. And so...all of this happened."

Neither Sora or Sunao could exactly forgive him, not just yet, for the events that had taken place, but both did feel sorry for him.

Yuki smiled warmly at the two. "And now...I'm going to break my will's hold on your dreams. And you will both wake up. Don't worry though, this dream hasn't taken nearly as long as you may think it has, because, you see, time in this world was controlled by me as well. You'll find the two of you may just have slept in a little bit."

"Now...this nightmare is over?" Sora questioned, sure something bad was going to happen soon that would delay their waking.

Yuki nodded. "I'm glad to have met you, brother. And I'm truly sorry. And now..."

Although Sora and Sunao were both holding hands tightly, the two of them suddenly lost all feeling and sight. While it felt as if they were both floating through a pool of warm air, they felt themselves touch down softly.

"This dream is ended." They both heard Yuki's voice for one last time before the will's hold on their minds completely vanished.

>

Sora smacked at his alarm clock, but the entire thing just fell to the floor and bounced across the room.  
And it was still ringing.

"Dammit...Fujimori...grab that?"

The alarm continued to ring as Sora forced himself out of bed. There were times that he would swear that Sunao would be able to sleep through anything. As he picked up the alarm and shut it off, he sat it back onto the stand where it belonged. As he did so, he caught the time. Nearly eleven thirty am.

Sora's blue eyes nearly bulged. He spun around, seeing a bit of pink poking out of the cocoon of blankets that Sunao had wrapped around himself. Sora used both hands to shake his roommate, who moaned loudly.

"Wake up! We've missed most of our morning classes--it's nearly lunch time!" Sora exclaimed loudly.  
His loud voice and shaking did it. Sunao's eyes fluttered open and he stared up at Sora for several seconds with his pink eyes, slightly confused.

"...class?"

Sora nodded as he stopped shaking him. There was something, though, on the back of his mind...  
Sunao sat up in bed, glancing around the room like he hadn't seen it in ages. "So...the dream is over?"

Dream?

And then it came rushing back to him. Everything. Sunao missing from bed that morning, from no one knowing him. Yuki, his brother, with his broken mind. And now...

Now Sunao existed.

Everything existed.

Sora laced his fingers with Sunao's as he sat beside him on the bed. "Yeah, the dream's over."

>  
>  
>

And there you have it. Sunao's back safe and sound and the nightmare is over.  
Will post the next chapter within two days.

In the epilogue: the aftermath in Sora's pov.


	8. Epilogue

>  
Nonexistent.  
Epilogue  
>

Sora's POV

"Hashiba, wake up!" I felt someone shaking me, but I really didn't want to wake up yet. I opened my eyes long enough to glanced at the alarm clock before dropping my head back into my pillow. "It's only eight and Sunday!"

He wouldn't quit though and kept yelling at me to wake up. "You promised you'd go to the hospital this morning, remember?"

Oh right...

I some how pulled myself out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I stumbled down the hall to the showers.

So, it's been almost two weeks since that dream ended. Since then, a bunch of things have happened. First off, both Fujimori and me went straight to Nii-chan and Nanami to explain what had happened to us. Nii-chan flipped out on us at first because we had missed his math class, but things got straighten out. With their help, we were able to locate the hospital where Yuki, my younger brother was staying at.

When we first saw the real Yuki truly for the first time, me and Fujimori had been shocked. We knew that he was in a coma, he had told us that in the dream, but have you ever seen somebody while they were in a coma? With tubes and wires all over the place? But even though he looked much different than he had in the dream, his skin was ghostly pale and hospital equipment didn't quite help recognition, I knew it was him. And the name on his chart read 'Takashi Yuki', so we knew we were in the right place.

I remember the nurses had been so happy that we came. Apparently, Yuki hadn't had a single visitor since had been brought to the hospital on the day he was found beaten and unconscience in that small room. His adoptive "parents" hadn't even bothered to come. And after they had found out he was in a coma (after being missing for nearly a month), they dropped their parent ship and fled the country. Nice parents, hmm? That reminds me, Nii-chan is now Yuki's guardian. The final paperwork won't be done for another week, but after Yuki gets out of the hospital, he'll stay with Nii-chan and Nanami.

I don't know much about what happened to Yuki. Fujimori searched some newspapers from a few weeks ago and found an article about what had happened, but it didn't go into much detail. Just that police raided a suspected drug house and found a beaten teenage boy locked in a closet. It said he was taken to the hospital, and that was it. The doctors know a good bit of what happened to Yuki and Nii-chan knows because he's Yuki's guardian, but they won't tell me. Fujimori tells me to shut up and stay out of his business, that if Yuki wants me to know, than he'll tell me himself.

The nurses and doctors all day it was a miracle what happened on that day that we first visited him in the hospital. While Fujimori was asking the nurses if he'd ever wake up (they were telling him that each day he stayed asleep, the possibly decreased, but they were all hoping for him to pull through), when I went up and spoke to him.

I told him, "Hey, you, it's your big brother. Now wake up and introduce yourself properly!"

Lovely way to great the brother I'd never known I had, right...?

"Come on, your mind is fixed and you've got no reason to be sleeping anymore. So rise and shine!"

...well, Yuki must have thought so too, because he didn't wake up just then.

It wasn't until I got all mushy and sappy and told him that I forgave him for his mistakes and that "It is safe to wake up now" that he stirred and his eyes opened. Yeah, the nurses and doctors flipped out and Fujimori and me were ran out of the room. We were able to really see him a day later, though, and I finally did get to really meet my brother. Although he had bowed and introduced himself to me three times while in the dream, it was when we were here (in the real world) where it really counted.

Even after he woke, Yuki's still had to stay in the hospital for a while to recover from his coma. His body was weak, or something like that, and it's taken him a while to be able to get up and moving about, he's had to see a bunch of doctors for that. But they say that there shouldn't be any real lasting effects on his body, except for his voice. Because of some tubes down his throat while he was in his coma, they damaged his vocal cords, or something like that, and they say he most likely won't be able to talk very loudly or scream, but he's not the type to talk loudly anyways.

Fujimori loves spending time with Yuki, but everyone does, so that's no real surprise. He tells me that it's because Yuki's smarter than me and "it's a nice change to be away from an idiot, I like speaking to people with sense in their brain" and...I won't deny that my younger brother most likely is smarter than me. When he starts school (because Nii-chan says he'll be starting next term) he'll be in a grade below me, instead of two below.

Him and Nanami have gotten really close. I remember when I was in the hospital after my fall, Nanami had acted like an older sister...er, brother, to me, and it was really nice. Nanami's just the type of person who likes to care for and baby others and...Yuki's never been babied before and he loves the attention. When I walked into his hospital room the other day, I heard him calling Nanami 'Mother'...which is pretty weird...but some how suits Nanami perfectly and he loves it.

"Dummy, you're going to be late." Fujimori states as he sees me re-enter the dorm room after my shower.

Love, huh?

Speaking of which, you notice how touchy-feely lovey-dovey me and Fujimori were being during the dream? I suppose life-or-death events will do that to you. I love Nao-kun. And Nao-kun loves me. Not that we'd say that outloud, of course, but it's pretty clear between the two of us.

We usually act like the same as usual, especially around others. I don't think either of us are ready to show our affection out in public. Sometimes, though, we'll hold hands when we're walking down an empty hall. Remember that pink elephant plushie I had--my favorite thing ever? After a visit to Yuki where I walked in and he was napping, I couldn't help thinking that he looked very small curled up in that hospital bed...which is stupid, because he's not that much shorter than me and I've only got about twenty pounds on him. But I couldn't stop thinking that and...so at the end of it, I gave him that pink elephant. Which he loves, thank you very much. I do pride myself in giving the best gifts, you know!

Oh, wait, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, I gave it to him because I didn't need that plushie to snuggle with in bed anymore. I have my Nao-kun. Usually Fujimori and me start the night out in our own beds, but sooner or later during the night one of us will get up and we'll share a bed. Once we get over being so damn shy around each other, maybe we'll start the night out in the same bed.

"Hey!" I called as I enter the hospital room with the chart for 'Hashiba Yuki' on the door. Oh yeah, Yuki spoke with Nii-chan and he had his family name changed to what it truly was. I see the formilar dark haired boy glance up at me from his bed, where he is eating a perfectly disgusting looking hospital breakfast.

"Good morning, Sora!" He's got this huge and silly grin on his face (Fujumori lovingly calls it the 'Hashiba Trademart', but that goes for our same shade of blue eyes). I think it means the world to him that I visit him.

Like I said before, he likes the attention. Fujimori told me that it was nicer to think of it as 'attention-starved', but it's nearly the same thing.

I'd love to say that Yuki and me get along perfectly, but...what, we're brothers, what did you expect? Even though we've only known each other for a short time, it feels perfectly natural to pick on each other...alright, so I do most of the picking on him, but I figure I've got a lot of time I need to catch up for, right? We've even ended up in full-scale arguments (it's been two weeks!) , where I yell and storm away and he throws an object and cunning words at me. But after a few, we usually just pretend that it never happened, or maybe someone will say sorry. We usually just like pretending it didn't happen, though, because Yuki's a big cry baby.

So, yeah, that's life, I guess.

"Guess what, guess!" He asks in that soft, yet fully excitable voice of his. I shrug. "A doctor spoke with me yesterday evening, I'm allowed to leave tomorrow afternoon!"

I grin. "So that Nanami can fuss over you even better from home? You'll love that."

His face turns a bit pink. He doesn't like to admit that he likes the attention. "Otasan doesn't 'fuss', Sora, he just is very helpful."

"Suuure...momma's boy!" I'm smacked with a pillow, but I can't respond to that threat because his breakfast tray is still sitting in front of him and although the nurses are sweet, they'd knock me to next Tuesday if they find me 'rough housing' (as they call it) with Yuki. "You're in for it, you know that, right?"

He grins with a playful smirk. "I'll just have Nao-chan come to my rescue by kissing you."

It's my turn to flush hot pink and he grins, knowing that he has won. He thinks it's funny that me and Fujimori are so damn shy with each other. "H-hey, that's not fair!"

Some people would rather live in a dream world. And some people like to spend all their time with their heads up in the clouds. But I think I like the real world best, no matter what it throws at me, because...that's life. And life, of course, is just a fancy word that means that you exist.

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END.

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So...there you go. Ended up eight chapters total, two more than I first figured, but a few chapters were pretty short, so whatever. Oh, any grammar issues in this chapter (like 'me and Fujimori' instead of 'Fujimori and I') are on purpose for a reason, it's Sora's POV.

Oh...and I've already posted my next Sukisho fic.

Odds and Ends: Girl's School Adventure.  
description: set after Nonexistent, there is a dance set up with an nearby all girl's public school. Can Sora and Sunao work together with the girls to help plan...and why exactly is Sunao in a girl's uniform?


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